Nagoya, Sep 30 (PTI) India’s much-hyped doubles medal challenge imploded spectacularly at the Asian Games on Wednesday, with both the men’s pairs choking in tightly-fought quarterfinals, leaving seventh seed Sumit Nagal as the country’s lone tennis survivor.
For all the talk of experience and medal prospects, Indian tennis was left with nothing to show for its doubles campaign after N Sriram Balaji-Anirudh Chandrasekar and Yuki Bhambri-Dhakshineswar Suresh both fell at the quarterfinal stage.
And the manner of the defeats made the disappointment harder to digest.
Balaji and Anirudh had won the opening set and were within touching distance of victory in the second before losing their nerve at the crucial moments, going down 7-6(4) 6-7(7) 8-10 to China’s Fumin Chiang and Tianhui Ziang.
They had the experience, the momentum and the opportunities. What they lacked was the ruthlessness to finish.
It was a brutal reminder that at this level, experience counts for little if it cannot be converted into points when the pressure peaks.
Balaji did not hide from that reality.
“It is a real disappointment. We felt we had won the match. We should have taken (the) tiebreaks, but it did not go the way we wanted,” he said.
His explanation was even more revealing.
“It was pure pressure. The way we played was actually better than them, but they had nothing to lose and came out firing — left, right, centre. We had our chances, but under pressure we could not finish those points,” Balaji said.
“We were ready for the tie-breaks, but we just could not handle that level of pressure.”
That was not the only Indian pair to buckle when the match was there for the taking.
Yuki Bhambri and Dhakshineswar, another combination expected to mount a serious medal challenge, lost 6-7(5) 3-6 to Chinese Taipei’s Yu-Hsiou Hsu and Chenjui Ho.
After surrendering the opening-set tiebreak, the Indians were unable to force the match into a decider and meekly slipped out of the competition.
For Bhambri in particular, a player with years of international doubles experience, the defeat was a disappointing end to what was supposed to be a medal campaign.
The combined experience of Bhambri and Balaji, along with the promise of their younger partners, was expected to give India a formidable presence in the event. Instead, when the medals came within reach, both combinations failed to deliver.
Coach Ashutosh Singh tried to put the defeats down to the fine margins of elite sport.
“Today was a challenging day for Indian tennis, particularly in the doubles,” he told PTI.
“In men’s doubles, Anirudh and Balaji fought extremely hard and were very close, eventually going down 8-10 in the match tiebreak. Yuki and DK also had a difficult doubles match and could not get through. But that is sport at this level, the margins are very small and sometimes a couple of points can decide the outcome.”
The collapse was compounded by Dhakshineswar’s earlier singles defeat.
The Indian lost 3-6 4-6 to sixth seed Chun-Hsin Tseng of Chinese Taipei in the third round before returning to court for the doubles quarterfinal.
He had entered the last 16 after beating Indonesia’s Gunawan Trismuwantara in straight sets on Tuesday but could not overcome Tseng.
Bhambri’s campaign also ended completely later in the day when he and Rutuja Bhosale lost their mixed doubles quarterfinal 3-6 4-6 to Chinese Taipei’s Su-Wei Hsieh and Chun-Hsion Tseng.
So, after all the pre-Games expectations, India’s entire doubles challenge has disappeared without a medal.
The only Indian still standing is Nagal, who provided the day’s lone bright spot by dispatching Uzbekistan’s Sergey Fomin 6-3 6-2 to reach the men’s singles quarterfinals.
The 249th-ranked Nagal, seeded seventh, produced the composure and clinical finishing that his doubles compatriots could not, controlling the match and closing it out in straight sets.
He will now face third seed Yibing Wu of China, ranked 111th in the world. Nagal had lost 3-6 3-6 to Wu in their only previous meeting at the 2024 Shanghai Masters.
Ashutosh said the team needed to recover and learn from the setbacks.
“Sumit played a very composed match which is a positive. He was absolutely locked in for the battle and brought all his experience into play today while DK had a tough singles match against a quality opponent,” he said.
“We have to take the lessons, recover quickly and stay focused on what is still ahead.”
For Indian tennis, though, the damage is already done.
Balaji and Ankita Raina were already out of mixed doubles while Raina and Bhosale challenge had also folded in women’s doubles. PTI APS APS UNG
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